Favorite Mirror Universe Episode?

Like most, I think 'Mirror Mirror' to be to be best and 'In A Mirror, Darkly' a close second. I loved how they not only worked in the USS Defiant but when confronted with the it's advanced technology the only part they truly embraced were the weaponry.
The DS-9 episodes just did not click with me- looked more like an excuse to over-act by the regulars.
I do feel though that the NX should have had more changes to it than just a paint job- something along the lines of the Warship Voyager in 'Living Witness' would have been fun.

In a Mirror Darkly does it for me. Mirror, Mirror comes as a close second, but my issue with it is how quickly Kirk formulates the theory of being in a parallel universe. Those lines kind of felt like artificially put there to make the watcher understand exactly what is happening.

Crossover was pretty good too. The first time I watched that episode in the 90's, I was all over it, as I also remembered the Kirk incident.
I admit, I did not watch the rest of DS9 episodes (I never watched past season 3), so I have no opinions on them.

Mirror, Mirror comes as a close second, but my issue with it is how quickly Kirk formulates the theory of being in a parallel universe. Those lines kind of felt like artificially put there to make the watcher understand exactly what is happening.

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What other theories should Kirk have considered, that fit the facts as they knew them at that point?

Mirror, Mirror comes as a close second, but my issue with it is how quickly Kirk formulates the theory of being in a parallel universe. Those lines kind of felt like artificially put there to make the watcher understand exactly what is happening.

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What other theories should Kirk have considered, that fit the facts as they knew them at that point?

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I second this, really there wasn't any other option Kirk could have considered, apart from maybe Spock went nuts and changed everything around while he was on the planet!

I loved the DS9 Mirror Universe episodes, but as a fun distraction rather than a "true" mirror universe story, I could even postulate that they may be in a "different" mirror universe to that shown in Mirror, Mirror and In A Mirror Darkly.

I regard the latter two as fantastic episodes. I always thought it would have been fun for TOS to re-visit the universe, discovering that Kor was almost like Kirk, with the Klingons and Romulans being very Federation-like.

Mirror, Mirror comes as a close second, but my issue with it is how quickly Kirk formulates the theory of being in a parallel universe. Those lines kind of felt like artificially put there to make the watcher understand exactly what is happening.

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What other theories should Kirk have considered, that fit the facts as they knew them at that point?

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That they are inside some mind trick or under the influence of some malevolent alien? It happened many times before that episode.
They always ran into things that drove the crew mad, delusional or simply degenerate.

The fact that Kirk somehow just guessed the right answer for that situation seemed kind of far-fetched to me.

Mirror, Mirror comes as a close second, but my issue with it is how quickly Kirk formulates the theory of being in a parallel universe. Those lines kind of felt like artificially put there to make the watcher understand exactly what is happening.

Click to expand...

What other theories should Kirk have considered, that fit the facts as they knew them at that point?

Click to expand...

That they are inside some mind trick or under the influence of some malevolent alien? It happened many times before that episode.
They always ran into things that drove the crew mad, delusional or simply degenerate.

The fact that Kirk somehow just guessed the right answer for that situation seemed kind of far-fetched to me.

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Well, if we're going to analyze the scene, let's at least have the transcript:

Mirror said:

MCCOY: What is this? Everything's all messed up and changed around, out of place.
UHURA: Captain, what's happened?
MCCOY: No, not everything. That spot, I spilt acid there a year ago. Jim, What in blazes is this?
KIRK: I don't know. It's our Enterprise but it isn't. Maybe
UHURA: Maybe what, Captain?
KIRK: Any of you feel dizzy when we were in the transporter beam?
UHURA: Yes.
SCOTT: Aye.
KIRK: When we first materialised.
SCOTT: I did.
KIRK: It happened twice. First we were in our own transporter chamber, then we faded, and then when we finally materialised, we were here. Wherever this is.
SCOTT: Captain, the transporter chief mentioned a surge of power. The transporter lock might have been affected by the ion storm and we just materialised somewhere else.
KIRK: Yes, here. Not our universe, not our ship. Something parallel. A parallel universe co-existing with ours on another dimensional plane. Everything's duplicated, almost. Another Enterprise. Spock with a beard.
UHURA: Another Captain Kirk, another Doctor McCoy, another
MCCOY: An exchange. If we're here
KIRK: Then our counterparts must have been transporting up at the exact same time. Similar storms on both universes disrupted the circuits. We're here, and they're on our Enterprise. Probably asking the same questions. Are we in another universe, and if so, how do we get back to our own? They'll use the computer, and we have to.
MCCOY: What about the Halkans? We can't let them be destroyed.

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I've highlighted what I think are the key pieces of information that Kirk bases his supposition on. Everything being the same, but different, and then the same down to certain details that can't easily be known (how many besides McCoy knew about the acid spot?), the behavior of the transporter beam, and the surge of power because of the storm all suggest that they've accidentally beamed somewhere else, because of the storm. That somewhere else can't really be in their own universe, either. QED.

Yeah, I agree: Kirk's just that good. He can argue a machine into blowing itself up. He has a genius-level intellect, and he doesn't shrink from the logical conclusion.

It's also worth noting that the theory is confirmed later in the episode, first by the ship's computer as a plausible theory, and then later by Scotty as what's actually happening, when he sets up the transporter to beam them back, as Scotty is able to determine that they don't have much time left to return.

Even if it had been a mind trick, so what? How could they have been any worse off, by following the best escape plan they had before them?

Of course "Mirror, Mirror" was excellent because of the "what if..." story idea it examined, but for me ENT's "In A Mirror, Darkly" excelled in exploiting the story idea (and these are the only ENT episodes I ever watched full length, I'm really not a prequel fan with the exception of B5's "In the Beginning").

With TOS Gene Roddenberry wanted to have "Hornblower" in it, Nicholas Meyer delivered it with ST II and VI but exaggerated, IMHO while IAMD did a great job of conveying a maritime feel, although admittedly it was more "Pirates of the Caribbean" than "Horatio Hornblower".

Everything in IAMD reminded me of pirates doing their business but of course within a futuristic context. If that was the essential idea I can only congratulate the ENT producers on an excellent job.

What clearly sets it apart from the other MU episodes is the fact, that it is totally a mirror episode, from teaser to end credits (you´ve got to admire how they even changed the opening credits along with the music to match the rest of the episode(s)). This way we get to see "our heroes" as they are in the other universe, without the posing as bad guys and tiptoeing around of the "real" characters as in Mirror, Mirror (which I still like a lot, nonetheless).
It´s a straight forward fun story to watch, without any constraints, completely detached from ENTs "real" universe. And though some apparently consider bringing the Defiant back this way as "fanwank", I was really thrilled the first time a saw it ... did NOT see that coming

IAMD may also be an interesting entry for someone wo hasn´t seen any ENT episodes before, since it stands so separate from the rest of the show and also has the ties back to TOS.

What other theories should Kirk have considered, that fit the facts as they knew them at that point?

Click to expand...

That they are inside some mind trick or under the influence of some malevolent alien? It happened many times before that episode.
They always ran into things that drove the crew mad, delusional or simply degenerate.

The fact that Kirk somehow just guessed the right answer for that situation seemed kind of far-fetched to me.

Click to expand...

Even if we count the Talos IV incident (which didn't involve this crew), and maybe Trelane, I believe, at this point in the series that "always ran into things" of the calibre to look like a parallel universe is probably overstating it.

Indeed, at this point, Kirk had practical experience with alternate universe hopping to know it might make you dizzy, so he asked the crew.